


Domestic Bliss

by Hassie_Lee



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Cuddling & Snuggling, Depression, Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Insomnia, Japanese Shiro (Voltron), Kissing, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, Mental Health Issues, More characters to be added, More tags to be added, Morning Cuddles, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective Shiro (Voltron), References to Depression, Self-Esteem Issues, Sleep Deprivation, Sleepiness, Sleeping Together, Sleepy Cuddles, Suicidal Thoughts, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, domestic life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-02-19 12:16:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13123536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hassie_Lee/pseuds/Hassie_Lee
Summary: The domesticity of Lance and Shiro has its ups and downs, it happens to the best of them.





	1. alone

The quietness of the house was finally starting to get to him. Of course the extra toothbrush in the cup holder alongside his own and the clothing several sizes too big for him neatly put away in drawers and on hangers in their closet, said otherwise. But the house was a two story with an enormous backyard with a view, the empty space was like a missing puzzle piece to a jigsaw puzzle. It left the puzzle incomplete. And with Shiro always away for work it left Lance feeling just like that. Empty. Incomplete. 

 

Lance knew he shouldn’t have been feeling like this, he knew Shiro’s job was tasking and demanding. He knew it was probably tougher on Shiro than it was on him, with work and the added stress of constantly traveling. So, he sucked it up and put up a front. A smile on his face pretending everything was ok until maybe he could convince himself it really was. But Lance grew up in a large family as the youngest, he always had someone there with him; his mother or father, a brother or sister, an aunt or an uncle and even some cousins. Lance was never alone and he was never lonely, but now, living majority of the time alone in a big house left Lance with the perfect opportunity for doubts to root themselves in his head.

 

Whenever Shiro left for work for weeks on end a weight would settle itself at the pit of Lance’s stomach, the feeling of anxiousness left his skin prickling. It was times like this that Lance felt too small for his own skin, he felt restless, fidgeting around the house like a nervous child.

 

Lance, of course, not wanting to cause any problems for Shiro kept quiet.

 

That’s why Lance kissed Shiro goodbye at the airport. Like the good partner he was he woke up at the crack of dawn just to watch his beloved walk through the terminal for his flight. And like the good lover he was he pushed down the anxiety, smothered it until it was muted enough for him to be able to get through the morning. At least just until Lance returned home and Shiro was miles and miles away.

 

Shiro would be the first to know if something was wrong with Lance, even if Lance himself refused to tell him the truth. He noticed a slight change in Lance’s mannerisms, his behavior was different. He noticed the way the corner of Lance’s lips twitched when Shiro would turn his way, forcing a smile for him. Shiro didn’t like that but when he brought it up with Lance, Lance would somehow dodge the question and before Shiro realized what he’d done, they were far gone from the original conversation to bring it back up.

 

Which was also why Shiro was a little hesitant to go on this business trip, but Lance had reassured him that everything was fine and that he shouldn’t miss work for him. All Shiro could do was trust in Lance to be fine alone for the next couple of weeks until he returned. 

 

Lance was not fine, not in the slightest. He couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t eat. All Lance did while Shiro was away was bury himself into the covers of their shared bed and cry his eyes out until they burned and were red rimmed and puffy. 

 

After Shiro came back the man took note on how Lance always seemed to be tired, opting to stay in bed under the covers more often than not. Shiro tried to coax Lance out of bed with the promise of cooking his favorite meal to no avail. Lance was more lethargic. A little slow in response and the amount of facial expressions, as well his volume when speaking reduced significantly.

 

There were times in which Shiro’s work didn’t require him to travel, but benefited more in having him at the office to take control of projects or step in whenever necessary during meetings. Even when Shiro wasn’t traveling to new places he would still get held up at the office. Lance felt lonely for the first time in years since he left home to live on his own. Shiro would get home late, and by the time the man walked through the doors of their home, dinner was already cold. One time, Shiro came home to plates wrapped in Saran Wrap on the table. Another time, Shiro found Lance slumped on the table with his head resting against his arms as a cushion. Shiro had to carry Lance up the stairs and into bed.

 

“Lance, baby, you’ve been under there for quite some time now,” Shiro whispered softly to the bundle of blankets on the bed, Lance underneath them. “Come out and eat something, at least a few bites, for me?” Shiro tried to coax Lance out with the promise of cooking his favorite meal. 

Lance peeked out from under his bundle of blankets and shook his head. “I’m not hungry,” he mumbled, turning on his side with his back towards Shiro. 

“I know I’m always at work and not home often,” Shiro started, voice a little soft and sad when actually saying how much he wasn’t there for Lance. “I’m sorry I’m not here often, baby. I’ll do better, Lance. I can take time off work and then it’ll just be me and you. I’ll take care of you and give you the attention I’ve been failing to give you.” 

Lance sat up at Shiro’s words, eyes watering with fresh tears. “I miss you Shiro, I miss you so much. I feel so alone here all by myself and I don’t—I wish I didn’t feel this way but I do, Shiro. I feel restless. I can’t sleep and I don’t feel comfortable in my own skin, I feel anxious when you’re away, I feel sad and like crying all the time and I hate it because it makes me feel gross. I’m sorry shiro, I’m sorry.”

Shiro’s eyes widen at his beloved’s words, of how Lance truly felt about him being gone so often. He knew something wasn’t right, he knew Lance wasn’t comfortable with the idea of him constantly traveling and staying late at the office. He should’ve known how his absence would affect Lance and he shouldn’t have assumed Lance would’ve been fine on his own. He should have declined the trips and stayed with Lance. Shiro couldn’t bare to hear such hurt words come from Lance, so he leaned forward and wrapped Lance in an embrace. He squeezed him tightly once to ground him, to reassure him he was here with him and he wasn’t going anywhere. “I’m here for you, Lance, I’m here, I’m not going anywhere, baby.”

 

Lance whimpered, hands tightly clutching to the back of Shiro’s shirt. They stayed like that for sometime until Lance cried himself to sleep, the barest of whimpers coming from him in sleep. His face was swollen, cheeks tear streaked and puffy, red eyes.

 

The next day, Shiro took time off work, using the vacation days that had piled up to last him a couple of months. The time they spent together was focused on reconnecting, bonding with each other, as Shiro put it, saying it was important. Shiro focused on making it up to Lance for the time spent apart. He coaxed Lance into eating, even if it was a few bites. He made sure Lance wasn’t alone when he couldn’t sleep, always making him a warm tea to help ease his nerves. Nights filled with cuddling and stealing kissing from each other, small fits of giggles coming from Lance as he tries to hide his face against Shiro’s broad chest. He’s never felt this happier and Shiro is content with knowing Lance’s mental health is getting better.

“You didn’t have to take off work for me, you know,” Lance whispers softly one night. The lights are off, but Shiro can picture Lance’s face, the one where it clearly shows he’s blaming himself or feeling guilty over something. The truth is, Lance shouldn’t feel bad about it, this was something Shiro had been meaning to do anyways. 

“I wanted to,” he whispers back, planting a gentle kiss on top of Lance’s forehead, gliding a thumb between his brows to soon out the lines there. “ I’ve been making you feel like I’ve been neglecting you and not paying attention to you, Lance.”

 

Lance listens, eyes closed, to the soothing voice of Shiro, running his thumb across the back of Shiro’s hand. It was quiet for a minutes until Lance broke the silence. 

“I love you, Shiro.”

Shiro smiled, nuzzling against Lance’s neck. 

“I love you, Lance.”


	2. Restless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I rewrote this multiple times, and I considered scrapping it and doing something completely different but I couldn't. So this was the final result after I told myself this was the last rewrite and however it turned out was what it was.

There were only a handful of things Lance valued more than anything in the world: his beauty products and sleep (ok, Shiro was above his beauty routine but don’t go around telling people that, he had an image to uphold). And as much as Lance went around preaching to Shiro how sleep was important, he, himself was quite the insomniac.

 

Lance would experience symptoms of someone who had insomnia, the most common being his difficulty of falling asleep. On days he would have trouble sleeping, he would lay in bed for hours trying to go to sleep without success. Lance would close his eyes and try to relax but his mind would refuse to shutoff, opting to keep the cogs turning much to his annoyance. Some nights he would just lay still and faux sleep not wanting to disturb Shiro from his own rest. Lord knew the man needed all the hours of sleep he could get. Other nights, when Lance couldn’t stay still on the bed, he would carefully slip out of the covers and quietly pace around the room, stopping his movements if Shiro suddenly shifted in his sleep.

 

Shiro wasn’t ignorant to Lance’s sleeping habits but he was kept in the dark by Lance when he asked about it. If Lance was good at one thing (he’s amazing at a lot of things, actually) it would be that Lance was an expert in dodging and deflecting. Shiro had caught Lance more than enough times walking around in their bedroom or downstairs in their kitchen rummaging through the pantry looking for a bag of chips. When Lance had trouble sleeping, if he stayed up long enough he eventually got hungry. One time, Shiro caught Lance eating the KitKat bar he had been saving. Shiro sat with Lance making him warm cups of tea until he grew tired and was ready to go back to bed.

 

“Lance, how long has this been going on?” Shiro asked once, watching Lance slowly become frustrated with himself with his inability to fall back to sleep.

 

“Just recently?” Lance questioned. “I don’t know, this isn’t new, but it’s been worse than what it usually is. Why do you ask?”

 

“Because you could be suffering from insomnia, Lance,” Shiro said, gently rubbing up and down Lance’s back to comfort him.

 

“I don’t have insomnia, Shiro,” Lance said, sighing.

 

Turns out, Lance didn’t have insomnia—or at least the kind that would hinder him as a functional human being—the kind of insomnia Lance had was due to stress factors. His anxiety and stress levels had been a little high lately and his emotional state wasn’t doing so good either, which caused a distribution in his sleep.

 

And that was the end of that conversation. It wasn’t brought up again until Shiro found Lance on the verge of a breakdown because he was extremely tired to the point he felt like he was losing the little sanity he had left. 

 

Shiro had to gently pry Lance’s fingers from his hair, the boy taking a few strands with him. Then, Shiro brought his hand to Lance’s face, ever so lovingly cupping a tan cheek, guiding the face to look at him. 

 

Soothing words poured out of Shiro like a wave flowing. He tucked Lance under his chest, his ear on his chest to hear the beating of his heart and to feel the deep rumble within him to ground him. It was only when Lance’s breathing evened out that Shiro broke the comfortable silence between them. “Let me make you something warm to drink and get you back to bed.”

 

Lance nodded, releasing a shaky breath.

 

“Ok. Yeah, ok,” Lance said.

 

The tea settled in his belly leaving him feeling contently warm inside. The next few sips had him feeling a little lethargic, his eyes were beginning to drop and he felt himself nodding off against Shiro’s shoulder. When the warm tea had been finished the cups were left in the sink to deal with in the morning. They made the climb up stairs quietly, Lance’s hand comfortably in Shiro’s. They released once they reached their bedroom to prepare to go to sleep. 

 

With his teeth brushed Lance crawled into bed first while he waited for Shiro to finish up. His eyes fluttered open when he felt a dip in the mattress, Shiro settling beside him. Lance turned over on his side facing Shiro and scooted closer to the larger body for warmth, tucking himself firmly against Shiro’s side. He wrapped a thin arm around him in an attempt to be closer as if wanting to merge with him and he felt a larger arm wrap around his middle pulling him closer. Lance sighed contently, pleased to be in Shiro’s comforting hold. 

 

They laid together awake but with their eyes closed for sometime, Shiro whispering softly to Lance, comforting him in any way possible, hoping to soothe him enough for him to fall asleep. It was working, because Lance found himself unable to keep his heavy lids open for any longer.

 

Lance could almost sob in relief when he realized he was falling asleep, his mind was actually shutting up for once. He planted a soft kiss alongside Shiro’s jaw and breathed out a sleepy “goodnight” before settling once more and not moving again after that. Soon Shiro followed in sleep, the two holding each other as they slept. 

 

The next morning, Lance woke up feeling rested for the first time in months since his sleep cycle had been disturbed. 

 

There were times in which Lance slept comfortably, slept like the dead even and others where Lance had difficulty going to sleep. It made Lance feel frustrated when he was sleep deprived but he had Shiro to help him through it. A warm cup of tea and some gentle talking was usually the trick with his insomnia that came and went without warning. But now, instead of dealing with it on his own, Lance was sure to inform Shiro of when he had a bad night to find a solution rather than letting the hours of lost sleep pile up.


	3. Twinge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized, or at least felt like I was portraying Lance as some whiny person when he's not, though he can be at times but that's not him all the time. So I decided to do Shiro for this one. The first two are kinda down because I wasn't feeling good and I was just using Lance as a way to vent but these stories are going to get more interesting and more characters will slowly be introduced into the series!

Shiro woke with a start to a sharp twinge on his right upper arm where skin connected to metal. He groaned, his flesh hand clenching the area where flesh ended, nails digging into the skin. He gasped when another twinge hit, feeling his arm seize from pain coursing up his arm. Beads of sweat began to form on his brow, and a chill ran down his spin leaving a trail of little bumps in their wake. That’s when Shiro noticed the drop in temperature in the room. It was a little chilly, judging by the way his scar was aching from the cold. The cold front must’ve hit earlier than expected then. Shiro was to absorbed in keeping himself from spiraling from the pain to notice the bed dip, the other body next to him shifting slightly. 

 

“Shiro?” Lance mumbled, voice still heavy with sleep. Lance sat up, the covers falling from his shoulders and pooling at his waist. He had woken up to Shiro gasping and groaning in pain and immediately woke to see what was going on with him. What lance saw sadden him a little, taking in the visible shape of Shiro hunched over with his shoulders out, the moonlight that streamed in from their window making the metal glow slightly. A chill went down Lance’s spin and from that he knew what the problem was. “Shiro,” Lance tried again, gaining the attention from the man. 

 

“Lance,” Shiro gasped, eyes with worry at having woken up his boyfriend. “I’m sorry I woke you. You can go back to bed.”

 

Lance shook his head, eyes wide. “You must be crazy to think that I’ll happily go back to sleep while you’re hurting.” 

 

For a moment, Shiro forgot about the pain in his arm to remind himself he should’ve known Lance would never dismiss him. He watched as Lance got out of bed with one of his shirts hanging off his lithe frame, the shirt too big on Lance that it revealed a shoulder and collarbone much to Shiro’s pleasure. However, it was cut short when another prick hit him causing him to groan out in discomfort. 

 

“Yeah, yeah, big guy, you can stare all you want later, but first we need to get you better,” Lance said, Shiro already thinking of how tiresome this must be for him. Lance said that as if he wasn’t a burden, as if he wasn’t such a hassle to deal with all the time. Like, having to deal with the nightmares, the pains, the insecurity of his arm sometimes when all Shiro wanted to do was take off his prosthetic and would refuse to hold Lance with metal on such tender flesh. Which Lance would get upset by and hold his prosthetic in his own hand tight, stubborn in not letting go to assure him it didn’t bother him.

 

“I’ll go bring you some pain medication and we’ll turn up the heat since it’ll get colder now,” Lance left the room and shortly returned with a bottle of water and pills in hand, the room already getting warmer. Lance carefully handed Shiro the pills and water as he sat down on the bed beside him watching Shiro as he gulped down the medicine. Lance spoke softly to Shiro while gently rubbing his thumb across the back of Shiro’s hand to comfort him. 

 

Shiro tried to keep listening—until his mind wondered to darker thoughts. Slowly Lance’s voice became muffled, distorted as he allowed himself to wonder elsewhere. Why did Lance stay with someone like him? All he dos was sadden Lance when he got like this, didn’t he? How could anyone possibly put up with someone who’s dreams could become nightmares at any given time, waking them up with a kick to the stomach or being shoved out of bed? Shiro didn’t know, he was sure Lance would get tired of him eventually, yet, here he was proving Shiro wrong.

 

Suddenly, Lance’s voice was cutting through those thoughts and bringing him back to himself. 

 

“Whatever it is, stop thinking it,” Lance said, a dainty finger gently poking up against his forehead. “Come lay down with me, I’ll stay up with you until you fall asleep.” Lance didn’t wait for Shiro to respond as he was already throwing back the covers and pulling Shiro along with him under them.

 

They were laying in their sides facing one another, Lance smiling softly at Shiro while his hand was enclosed around Shiro’s, the limb pulled gently against Lance’s chest. He was much warmer now, not just from the temperature change but also from being so close to Lance. Lance radiated so much body heat that he was like a living furnace as his friends would say. At times Lance got extremely cold despite often times feeling warm to the touch. They were quiet for sometime, the silence a comforting one and slowly the pain ebbed away from Shiro thanks to the medicine and the warmth. The cold tended to cause his old scars to hurt unless he was warm enough or he let the pain pass on its own, but sometimes it was too much of a toll on him. Other times it didn’t have to be cold for his scars to hurt, a single twinge could cause immense pain. Sometimes, due to these small twinges it would cause Shiro to fall ill. A headache, a slight fever, and eventually a running nose topped off with a cough.

 

“I’m sorry I woke you up,” Shiro apologized, his voice low. “I’m sorry I’m like this.”

 

Lance stopped running a hand through Shiro’s hair, looking at the man with large, deep blue eyes. Shiro removed his hand from Lance’s and gently placed it on top of the hand that was in his hair, grasping it gently. Lance shook his head, scooting towards Shiro, burying himself against the man. 

 

“Don’t say that,” he whispered softly, a hand coming up to grasp at Shiro’s sleep shirt. “Don’t say such things about yourself. There’s nothing wrong with you, Shiro. Everyone has their days, even I can be a pain to deal with but just as you love me regardless of how I am, I love you regardless of the nightmares and prosthetic. Because I love you, and there’s nothing that would drive me away, Shiro.” 

 

Lance pressed a kiss to the corner of Shiro’s mouth when he murmured several ‘thank you’s’ and ‘I love you’s’ and returned to running a hand through Shiro’s hair, gently untangling any strands of hair that become knotted during rough sleep. 

 

Shiro didn’t know how he ended up being with someone as sweet, caring, intelligent, and open-minded as Lance, but he was grateful to be with someone so accepting of him. 

 

The next day, Shiro woke up with a slight fever and a sharp pain behind his eyes. “Yep,” Lance had said, popping the ‘P’ as he stared down at the thermometer in his hand. “You have a fever, mister.” He supposed it was alright since he had Lance caring for him and giving him all of his attention for the rest of the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This I had not been beta'd if you happen to catch any grammer mistakes please let me know and I'll fix it as fast as I can. 
> 
>  
> 
> Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated. Let me know if there's anything any of you would like to see in this story!

**Author's Note:**

> This has no set plot, just random ideas I have, but if there's something you'd like to see let me know and I might take your idea into consideration and into fruitation. 
> 
>  
> 
> Enjoy!


End file.
